rTMS and nondeclarative learning

Abstract

Nondeclarative learning and memory involve acquiring and retaining skills or habits and include subtypes, such as procedural learning, priming, and classical conditioning. Animal studies, lesion, and functional imaging studies in humans have implicated a range of brain areas, including frontal and parietal cortical regions, basal ganglia, cerebellum in these functions. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can modulate functional connectivity in brain networks and provide causal evidence for their involvement in behavior. In this chapter, we review the use of rTMS to investigate the brain networks underlying nondeclarative learning by stimulating their cortical nodes and examining the effects of these interventions on behavior and imaging measures of brain activity and connectivity, with emphasis on how the timing of stimulation (before, during, or after learning) affects these measures.